Next up from our Brewmaster’s Collective beer club is the Lion’s Den Collection, which features two “coolship” wild ales that were spontaneously fermented at David Walker’s family barn: Ferus Spontaneous and Ferus Fruitaneous. This is as wild as it gets!
Both of these Barrelworks beers are Brewmaster’s Collective exclusives. Members who want additional bottles can order them from our online store. If you’re not a member but are interested in getting your hands on future small-batch exclusives, sign up for club’s 2023 waitlist.
Ferus Spontaneous
A coolship (from the Flemish word koelschip) is a flat, open-top fermentation vessel. To create these beers, we brew the wort at our Propagator R&D Brewhouse in Venice using a traditional Lambic malt bill. The hot liquid wort is then transferred to our coolship, where it spends the evening open to the elements under the stars at David’s barn.
Once cooled to ambient temperatures, the beer is fermented with help from the environment’s wild yeast and bacteria – just as was done in ancient times, and is still done today to create traditional Belgian lambic ales.
Ferus Spontaneous is a blend of one-, two-, and three-year-old coolship fermented beers. Each lot was aged in American oak barrels, and select barrels from the past three seasons were blended together in the Belgian Geueze tradition.
Years in our hearts an din the making, this beer has aromas of meyer lemon zest, a tangy, funky character, and a crisp effervescent mouthfeel.
Ferus Fruitaneous
Ferus Fruitaneous is the dazzling companion to Ferus Spontaneous. To celebrate the abundance of seasonal opportunity, Lambic beers are often fermented with fresh fruit, so it was intuitive for us to showcase a fruited version as well.
Ferus Fruitaneous is a selection of Ferus Spontaneous that was aged for four months on 1,000 pounds of freshly picked Ventura-grown raspberries and equal amounts of freshly harvested Mexican guava.
Honoring the old-world techniques of Lambic brewing while combining it with West Coast flair and terroir, we present you the fruits of our labor: Ferus Fruitaneous, a wild beer like no other.
Once you have your bottles in hand, taste along with Brewmaster Matt Brynildson, Production Director Ali Razi, and Sensory Research Analyst Craig Thomas with our virtual tasting.
